Peace

Dale

Elementary School

The 24/25 school year was one to remember at Peace Dale! There are many reasons to celebrate the efforts of our staff and students this past year. We made some tremendous STAR testing growth throughout the year while also continuing to develop our SEL skills through PBIS assemblies and monthly focus areas that explicitly taught students about meeting school expectations in various ways. Our students consistently stepped up to the challenge and displayed positive behavior while working incredibly hard to achieve their highest potential.

Academically, we made a concerted effort to include more writing in our school day. The adults in the building used our Professional Development time to focus on increasing writing opportunities, aligning writing prompts and rubrics at the grade level, and then aligning our expectations for student writing over a span of grade levels. This work would not have been possible without the support of our Literacy Coach, Kelly Burdge, who led the creation of rubrics, developed and analyzed writing prompts, and worked with teachers to analyze student writing samples to provide the best feedback and instruction for our students. Our teachers did an incredible job embracing this work and we ensured that extra time was available to implement writing through “Writing Wednesdays” where intervention blocks were subbed out for extra dedicated writing time. The results were phenomenal when we looked at student writing progress throughout the year. Also, through the increased writing time, the student data on reading comprehension increased considerably. Our literacy approach and rigor was a big success for this school year and something that we can continue to celebrate and grow upon next year.

One of the ways we monitor student progress is through STAR testing. The STAR test which is given three times a year tracks students progress towards meeting the proficiency standards and also monitors their growth. Our student growth from fall to winter was noted by the company as one of the highest levels of growth across the nation. This growth was present in both Math and Reading. We have worked really hard to help our students succeed. Our teachers deserve credit for their dedication to their craft, desire to improve results, and always creating a positive classroom environment.

Speaking of positive environments, our PBIS committee put on ten amazing PBIS assemblies that celebrated following school expectations. This year we added prizes for students with top attendance as well. Our students consistently stepped up to the standard that was set for them and as a result we were able to engage in various fun activities throughout the year. Some of the highlights were the Move-a-Thon, URI Women’s Basketball game which included the whole school, staff vs. student volleyball and kickball games, concerts, No Tech Bingo Night, the “Stingray Star” student newspaper, an incredible Night of the Arts, and a field day to remember. I know that those who were able to dunk the adults in the dunk tank will remember that day forever. 

To top off the year, we celebrated our amazing 5th graders as they prepared to move on to middle school. These students showed remarkable growth, maturity, and leadership throughout the year, and we couldn’t be prouder of who they’ve become. Speaking of 5th grade, I would be remiss to not mention the Peace Dale ES Crystal Apple winner, Mrs. Carr. She was nominated by her peers and voted by them to receive the prestigious award. She is caring, kind, supportive, and collaborative. We are lucky to have her at PDES.

It was an amazing school year and one that we can build off of for future years. I look forward to an even more successful year ahead.

- Jon Rapport